Mortal Kombat 4

Mortal Kombat 4 is the latest in a long series of Mortal Kombat fantasy fighting games, films and comics. Mortal Kombat was originally created by Ed Boon and John Tobias for Midway Games and was released for arcade games machines. They were later converted to a format suitable for home games consoles. Unfortunately, Midway went bust and the batten was taken over by Warner Brothers. Most enthusiasts would agree that Mortal Kombat 4 is the best offering yet in the Mortal Kombat series.

Mortal Kombat 4

The Mortal Kombat series has always been in 2D and, despite being extremely popular for years, was beginning to get a bit boring because of that - it was starting to look old hat. Mortal Kombat 4 has changed all that not by adding anything particularly new to the game itself, but by making it in 3D. At least the game looks 21st Century now.

Despite being in 3D now, Mortal Kombat 4 has retained its legendary speed and gory death scenes - the fatalities. In fact the fatalities look even a little more bloodier now and the comical ones even more comical, but that might be just an optical illusion because of the third dimension.

It is without doubt the best of the 3D fighting games for the Nintendo 64 and is often compared to Street Fighter.

The cast of the story are old, familiar evil-doer Shinnok, who has managed to escape from life imprisonment in Netherealms; Raiden, the thunder god and the team of mortals and immortals that he has assembled to save the world from domination or destruction at the hands of Shinnok.

It is the old theme rehashed with the same characters, but it is also still the same great fast fighting game.

Mortal Kombat 4 has more playable characters than previous versions, which should make it more interesting for longer. New playable characters are Meat, Goro and Noob Sailbot. All the characters, including Raiden and Quan Chi have moved to 3D exceptionally well.

Eurocom and midway have done a great job enhancing the on screen graphics without slowing the gameplay one iota.

One new feature is the ability to get certain characters to don different costumes on the character select screen. It does not change anything else about them, but allows the player to take a more in-depth part in the game. It is a nice touch for those who like to go a step further.

Despite being just as fast and in 3D the style of battle remains largely the same - that is the predominant use of projectiles. If you like that style, you will love Mortal Kombat 4, if you think that it's out of date, well, so is Mortal Kombat 4 really.

To be honest, Mortal Kombat 4 is same old same old - it is just Mortal Kombat but driven by a new polygonal engine. It is a very good, even exceptional polygonal 3D engine with a blistering framerate, but they could have rewritten the storyline a little too.

Mortal Kombat 4 feels like an upgrade rather than a new game.

OK, to be fair, the characters can perform a few new moves in battle and there are four new gruesome fatalities too and many fans will still call it one of the best 3D fighting games.